POLK, Ohio — A lush field of alfalfa turned into a temporary parking lot July 19 when Falling Star Farm, near Polk, Ohio, hosted this year’s Dairy Twilight Tour and Summit.
The annual event, coordinated by the Wayne-Ashland Dairy Service Unit and Ohio State University Extension, attracted around 1,800 visitors, including dairy farmers, ag industry professionals and young families learning about the dairy industry.
In addition to presentations on industry trends and wagon tours of the farm, the program was expanded this year to include a benefit auction. The auction raised $6,430 from the sale of donated gift baskets, wheels of cheese and a heifer calf from Falling Star Farm.
The money will help a dairy farming couple from Wayne County, Joseph and Mary Besancon, who are facing unexpected medical expenses. For Dewey Meyer, who runs Falling Star Farm with his family, the auction was a highlight of the evening.
“You don’t have to be a neighbor close by to help someone,” he said. “That’s what we did here tonight.”
Family tradition
Falling Star Farm was started in 1962 by Phillip and Shirley Kerr, who moved to the current location from another farm a few miles down the road. It was December, and snow was banked up along County Road 620, so they simply walked their cows down the road to the new place.
Shirley recalled that the weather was so cold her hands froze to the buckets as she carried milk to pour through a strainer into the bulk tank. The couple raised four children on the farm as they worked to expand the herd and the crop acres.
“They set wonderful examples for all of us,” said Karen Meyer, Phil and Shirley’s daughter.
The farm continued to expand in 1979, when Karen married Dewey Meyer, and he joined the family farm, bringing along his own herd of dairy cattle.
“My parents gave us a wonderful opportunity here,” Karen said.
Since then, the dairy has grown to a milking herd of 500 Holsteins. The family also raises corn on 500 acres and produces hay on another 400 acres.
In 1985, Karen started a chicken hatchery as a hobby and then expanded the hatchery into a business as she recognized the demand.
Early on, she received some advice that guided the hatchery’s growth, she said. “You can’t just give people what they need. You have to give them what they want.”
People want colorful eggs and various breeds of chickens and other poultry, she explained, so the hatchery offers more than 160 breeds of poultry. The hatchery now sells more than a million birds a year, mostly for backyard flocks and 4-H projects.
The hatchery ships chicks across the country through the U.S. Postal Service.
The Meyer family also got into the excavating business in 2012 by buying Branson Excavating. The family’s various enterprises have helped them weather the ups and downs of farming.
“Being diversified on the dairy farm has been a good thing,” Karen said.
Having many good employees over the years has also been an important factor in the family’s success, she added.
Karen and Dewey raised their own children on the farm and several family members are now involved with the dairy, hatchery and excavating businesses. The fourth generation is currently being raised on the farm.
Industry outlook
The challenges facing dairy farmers and the entire ag industry were the focus of the Dairy Summit, held as part of the farm tour.
Frank Burkett, chief executive officer of Hill’s Supply and co-owner of Clardale Farms near Canal Fulton, outlined the issues he’s been seeing on his farm, in the dairy supply business and among customers. Supply chain issues are causing shortages of equipment and inflation is leading to price hikes, he said.
Venders who traditionally adjusted prices only once a year, if that, are already considering their third price hike this year. Higher expenses for wages and benefits are a concern as well, Burkett said.
On his own farm, wages have increased by 12% to retain employees and attract new ones.
“We work in a terrific industry, but there is a limited number of people in this industry,” he said.
Interest rate increases are likely to reduce the amount of inventory dealers can afford to keep on hand. For farmers, those interest rate hikes will add to the cost of land, buildings and equipment. While older generations lived through a period of high interest rates in the 1970s and ’80s, it will be a new experience for many farmers, Burkett said.
All the cost increases will also affect farm insurance, said Burkett, who serves on the board of directors for Nationwide Insurance. He suggested that farmers review their insurance coverage because the costs to rebuild have increased so dramatically.
“I know that’s a painful process sometimes, but take the time to review your policy limits,” he said.
Supply and demand
Lori Oswald, manager of market analysis and fluid milk balancing for Dairy Farmers of America, pointed out that the higher milk prices dairy farmers have recently seen are likely to affect demand.
Global demand is soft and local demand falls off as prices rise, she said.
As prices rise, customers look for other choices, she said. “At this point, maybe it’s too high for consumers to pay.”
On the other hand, a new cheese plant in Michigan is helping absorb production from the surrounding area, including Ohio. Nationally, the outlook is good, Oswald said, although transportation costs are likely to be a concern. So is a shortage of dairy heifers, caused partly by the increased use of sexed semen, she added.
Derek Reusser, a Massey Ferguson marketing manager at AGCO in Wooster, said the last few years have brought pent-up demand for machinery. For 2023, he expects to see some improvement in the supply chain, but shortages persist for specific parts, such as tractor tire rim bolts.
Land values
Haley Zynda, an ag educator with Ohio State University Extension in Wayne County, pointed out sales of farmland in the county that have reached as high as $35,000 and even $40,000 per acre.
“For new and beginning farmers, that’s near impossible,” she said.
Part of the increase in farmland prices comes from the sale of land for non-farm use, Zynda said. So, Wayne County is promoting the use of Ag Security Areas to encourage landowners to keep land in agriculture. She also pointed out that a bill recently passed by the Ohio Legislature, House Bill 95, offers tax breaks to help beginning farmers.
In Holmes County, land prices have reached as high as $60,000 per acre, according to Tom Stocksdale, an agricultural lender with Farmers National Bank and the president of the Wayne-Ashland Dairy Service Unit. Those prices generally can’t be supported by the income from the land.
“We say if you pay more than $8,500 per acre, that acre’s not going to pay for itself,” he said.
Instead, farmers are using income from land they already own or land they are buying at lower prices to help pay off high-priced ground. Non-farm investors are currently looking at land as an alternative to under-performing stocks and bonds, Stocksdale said. That is contributing to rising land prices.
Even so, farmers are still making land investments. And when farmers borrow money, they find ways to make the payments, even if they “eat beans to make it work,” he said. “It’s amazing how agriculture takes care of its obligations.”
